


dress shopping

by evil_plants



Category: Darkwing Duck (Cartoon 1991)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Vague gender dysphoria, drake is a good dad, gosalyn is a she/her nonbinary you can't change my mind, i think she's nine in canon and she's in eighth grade in this, i wrote this as a vent so it's slightly out of character, inspired by "slaves to fashion", nonbinary gosalyn, rated teen for one swear, slightly older gosalyn, sorry if these tags are a mess, this duck loves his daughter so much, this is my first finished fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28503864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evil_plants/pseuds/evil_plants
Summary: Gosalyn has trouble finding a dress for her eighth grade graduation.
Relationships: Drake Mallard & Gosalyn Mallard
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	dress shopping

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've ever actually finished and published a fic so I'm sorry if I tagged anything wrong.  
> I put it in the tags but this was mostly a vent for me to work through some gender feelings so it might be slightly out of character but i tried my best. I hope you enjoy it :)

Gosalyn wipes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself down before stepping out of the dressing room stall. She’s trying to look more pissed than sad but after a full day of trying on graduation dresses she’s exhausted and not sure her emotional masking is effective. 

“Looks great, sweetie!” Drake says, looking up from the magazine he had been reading while waiting for Gosalyn to change. 

“I don’t think I really like it.” Gosalyn grumbles.

Drake sighs and checks his watch “Well the mall’s closing soon,” he says, “How about we head home. We can try a few more shops next weekend.”

“Sure.” Gosalyn says as she re-enters the change room.

☆

On the drive home, Drake pipes up, “You seem like you’re in a bad mood today, Gos. You okay?”

Gosalyn thinks about her answer for a second before responding. “I just don’t see why this is such a big deal,” she huffs, “Why can’t I just wear a t-shirt?”

“Gosalyn you are not wearing a t-shirt to your graduation.” Drake says, firmly.

“But Dad,” Gosalyn groans, “it’s just eighth grade! I’m gonna have a whole ‘nother graduation at the end of highschool. I’ll get dressed up for that one!”

“Gosalyn, no,” Drake says, “you may not think this is important but I do. You are wearing a dress and that is final, young lady!”

Gosalyn sighs and looks out the window. She can’t think of anything to say that won’t either make her dad more upset or make her start crying, so she decides to keep her mouth shut. 

Drake glances at her. “Is the problem that it’s a dress?” Drake says, “If you’d rather wear a suit or something I’m fine with that. I just meant that I’d like you to wear something formal for this, Gos.”

“No, no. Dresses are fine,” Gosalyn lies, “I think I’m just tired.”

☆

When they get home, Gosalyn goes straight to her room and collapses onto her bed. She buries her face in her pillow and starts crying. 

Dresses just feel wrong. She doesn’t like how they look on her. They’re usually designed to bring out her hips and chest and seeing herself wearing them makes her feel like shit. The lack of mobility is also frustrating. And most importantly, she knows it will make people see her as a girl. 

Gosalyn doesn’t necessarily wanna be seen as a boy and she’s not entirely mad at being seen as a girl either. But being told that certain things make her a girl or not a girl is infuriating. And people telling her she has to act a certain way because they assume she’s a girl is worse.

She’s not entirely sure of any of this though. Her feelings are a big jumble and it's hard to even think about them. What she is sure about is that she wishes she had just told her dad that she did want to wear a suit. But that would provoke some pretty mean comments from other kids and people make fun of her enough as it is. So she decides to just suck it up and wear a dress.

She hears her dad and Launchpad talking outside of her room and then there’s a knock at her door. She quickly dries her eyes and picks up a comic from her bedside table so she can pretend she’s been reading it. 

“Yeah,” She calls at the door.

Drake opens the door. “Hey, Gos.”

“What’s up?” She says

“You wanna talk about dress shopping?” Drake says.

“Not really,” Gosalyn mumbles.

Drake gives a half-hearted laugh and sits on the end of Gosalyn’s bed. “We don’t have to talk now if you don’t want to,” he says, “but I can tell something’s wrong and I wanna make sure you’re alright. I know it can be hard but you can tell me if you’re upset.”

“I don’t know Dad,” Goslyn starts as she moves to sit next to her father. She pauses for a long time and Drake puts his arm around her. “I guess I don’t really wanna wear a dress,” she says.

“I figured,” Drake laughs, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

“But I don’t wanna wear boys clothes either,” Gosalyn says, avoiding eye contact.

“How come?” Drake asks.

“In case people are mad. Or make fun of me,” Gosalyn says, continuing to look at the floor.

“Who’s gonna make fun of you, Gos?” Drake says.

“I dunno. Kids,” Gosalyn replies.

“Well maybe those kids need to be taught a lesson by Darkwing Duck!” Drake jokingly says and Gosalyn can’t help but smile a little. There’s another long pause before Drake starts again, “You never seemed to care about what other kids think before…” he trails off.

“Yeah but this feels different,” Gosalyn says, “ I dunno why but it feels bigger.” 

“Thought you said this wasn’t a big deal,” Drake says, half-jokingly

“It shouldn’t be but it is...” Gosalyn says, “I wish I could just be a normal girl who’s excited to wear a dress.”

“Being normal’s overrated,” Drake replies.

“Dad, that’s so cliche,” Gosalyn laughs.

Drake sighs and squeezes his daughter closer to him. “How ‘bout we at least go look at some suits tomorrow after school. If you don’t like them you don’t have to wear one but there’s no harm in trying,” he says.

“Alright,” Gosalyn smiles, “As long as we can get Hamburger Hippo for dinner after.”

☆

Gosalyn buttons up the shirt, puts on the blazer, and looks in the changing stall mirror. _This feels right._


End file.
